It is known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,415, to provide a fuel control system in which flow to a gas turbine engine is regulated by a spill valve which is responsive to an electrical flow demand signal, the system including a pressure responsive valve in the flow path to the engine. The pressure responsive valve acts to increase flow in response to an increase in its own upstream pressure and has a profile such that the rate of change of flow is greater at higher pressures than at lower pressures. Such a pressure responsive valve is commonly referred to as a pressurising valve and has the effect of counteracting the square law characteristic of fuel flow through the orifices of the engine burners, whereby flow through the burners is more nearly proportional to the pressure of the fuel upstream of the pressurising valve, and hence to the magnitude of the electrical flow demand signal.
It is a disadvantage of the above system that response of the pressurising valve is to pressure only, and this has the effect that flow to the engine burners may be affected by factors other than that of the magnitude of the electrical demand signal, and may vary by as much as 20% from the demanded flow.